


Rapid Transit

by notasponsor



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Girlfriends/No Wives, I think its a lil fluffy?, M/M, One Shot, Strangers to friends then to lovers??, They meet in a subway car AU, a lil fast paced but, idk its just nice, strangers AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 09:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7752361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notasponsor/pseuds/notasponsor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The flickers of light shining through the windows illuminate Link’s face further than the dim lights of the subway, quick flashes of light from the moving New York skyline creating a glare on Link’s glasses every few seconds, “So how long have you been ridin’ the subway?”</p><p>Rhett shrugs, “Few years, can’t be too sure. How about you?” he asks as if he hasn’t been ‘subtly’ staring at Link since he started riding.</p><p>“A couple months ago.” Link has faint freckles, Rhett notices now that they’re face to face.</p><p>There’s a nearly awkward silence before Link breaks it, although not too smoothly at all.</p><p>“What do you think about cereal?”</p><p>Rhett doesn’t mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rapid Transit

**Author's Note:**

> Aaah, this is my first fic in this fandom, so please bear with me.

A tall man runs a hand through his hair as he quickly descends the small stairwell leading to the subway. The New York night sky disappears from sight and shrouds the man in brief darkness until the dim, fluorescent lights of the station fill his vision. He walks forward, swiping his Metro card in the slot and enters the subway car, settling into the same seat he always occupies. 

As the rest of the passengers board the car, he takes the time to look around at the familiar surroundings. The bright red seats in two neat lines, armrests between every three seats. That fading Panda Express poster above the window, alerting everyone of a sale that had ended two weeks ago. 

After a moment of peace and stillness, he reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his phone and earbuds. The earbuds remain tangled as he jams them in his ears. He closes his eyes and leans back, sighing. The staccato tapping of his finger to his thigh matches the beat of the music flooding his ears.

Moments pass and it’s when his hand starts to cramp that a harsh grab at his shoulder shocks him into snapping his eyes open. He turns and starts to glare at the person who had completely violated his personal space and privacy. 

His mouth runs dry when he realizes who it is. 

The man who sat on the other side of the subway car from him, three seats to the right. 

The man who glanced at his watch ten times a minute.

The man with the shiny and smooth black hair that seemed immaculate every time, side swept off of his forehead. 

The man with the large glasses framing his crystal blue eyes. 

The man who always caught the lighter haired man staring. 

The man who is currently grinning softly and gesturing for the bewildered man to take out an earbud. He does so quickly as the standing man opens his mouth, “What’re ya listening to?” he asks in a slight accent, lips turning up at one corner. 

He continues to stare at the bespectacled man with wide eyes. It takes a few seconds for him to speak, “Uh, it’s just some country music.” 

The blue eyed man smiles wider and sits down next to him, “Can I listen too?” he asks, turning towards the other man, accidentally knocking their knees together. 

He nods in return, “Oh, um, yeah-of course,” and hands him the other earbud. He looks down and opens his phone to the music app, flipping through songs until he finds a favorite. His head turns to look back at the man. He’s watching at him with a gaze that makes the bearded man rub his clammy palms on his jeans. 

“What’s your name, by the way?” the raven haired man asks, adjusting his earbud to fit comfortably in his left ear.

“Rhett Mclaughlin.” Rhett holds out a hand.

“Rhett,” he repeats quietly with a gentler smile than the beaming, toothy smile he was previously donning. He grasps Rhett’s hand and shakes it firmly, “Link Neal.” Rhett wraps his mind around the name, enveloping the caricature of the man he had seen for the past few months with a name. Link.

“Nice to meet ya, Link,” and they settle back into place, listening to his music. He stares at Link lightly bobbing his head to the music with a faint grin, mouthing the lyrics to a song he had never heard before, attempting to predict the next line. His blue eyes light up in amusement when he succeeds. After the first song, Rhett turns his head and looks at the passing walls outside the subway through the window, trying to avoid watching the man whom Rhett couldn’t seem to ignore every single day on his ride home. 

Rhett can’t really put his finger on why out of all the people in this subway car, he never fails to notice Link. There was a superb beat boxing man the other day, but that was also the day when Link changed his hair, and Rhett couldn't take his eyes off of him, the sweet crooning of Merle Haggard providing a wonderful soundtrack from his phone in the back of Rhett’s mind.

After the fourth song, Rhett is snapped out of his stupor by Link poking him on the same shoulder he had previously grasped.

“Yeah?” Rhett says, taking out his earbud with one hand and retrieving the one Link hands to him with the other. He stashes it and his phone back into his coat pocket. Rhett focuses his attention on Link.

The flickers of light shining through the windows illuminate Link’s face further than the dim lights of the subway, quick flashes of light from the moving New York skyline creating a glare on Link’s glasses every few seconds, “So how long have you been ridin’ the subway?”

Rhett shrugs, “Few years, can’t be too sure. How about you?” he asks as if he hasn’t been ‘subtly’ staring at Link since he started riding.

“A couple months ago.” Link has faint freckles, Rhett notices now that they’re face to face.

There’s a nearly awkward silence before Link breaks it, although not too smoothly at all.

“What do you think about cereal?”

Rhett doesn’t mind.

He blinks at the strange question but responds, “It’s pretty good, what about you?” Link beams that wide toothy smile again and starts to talk about cereal, which turns out to be his favorite food, but he had only recently discovered it a few years back. 

“I mean, I’ve had cereal before but not like this!” Link’s eyes sparkle when he talks about something he loves, Rhett notices. 

“I believe you, Mini Wheats are pretty good,”

“Pretty good?! They're fantastic!”

Rhett chuckles at Link’s excitement. Minutes pass by as they talk animatedly to each other about everything spanning from food to the severity of the population of tigers.

It feels as if a switch was turned, and they grow more and more giddy as they speak. Rhett feels a soft buzz in his veins the whole time, a small shred of excitement clinging onto him as they talk. He can’t help but laugh when Link does, eyes squinting and his hand grabbing onto the armrest for stability. They chat as if they’d been friends forever, conversations seamlessly moving from one topic to another.

They both pretend not to notice when Link’s usual stop passes them by. 

“So what do you do for a living?” Rhett asks breathlessly, still recovering from their laugh attack following a previous joke. Link chuckles and responds, “I’m the stage manager over at Booth Theater,” he blushes as Rhett’s eyes widen in recognition. 

“Woah, that’s huge!” he exclaims loudly, and bats away Link’s hand that are attempting to reach over and cover his mouth. There’s a moment of them slapping away lightly at each other’s hands before Link gives in.

He scratches his head and looks down, “It’s not really, I’m just the guy who keeps the show in order, ya’know?”

Rhett laughs and grabs Link’s shoulders and shakes him lightly, “Still! Broadway!” he says and exhales a soft “Wow,” as Link smiles bashfully and shakes his head.

Link regains his composure and takes Rhett’s hands off of his shoulders. “Well,” he says, “What do you do, then?” 

Rhett exhales loudly and says, “Well, it’s not as cool as yours,” Link laughs at that and swats at Rhett, quietly telling him to shut up, “I’m an architect at an upcoming firm” 

Link nods exaggeratedly and eagerly responds, “That’s still cool, you design buildings!”

Rhett shrugs with a small smile and they settle back into their seats and continue to talk about their respective jobs among other things.

“I don’t know,” Rhett gestures uselessly, “There’s just too many lines, y’know? No real room to express any sort of creativity,” A slight dimple appears on the right side of Link’s face as he smirks.

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” Link says, “You seem pretty clever to me,”

Rhett smiles, “Thanks man,” It’s not often he’s complimented by anyone besides his overbearing room mate. 

Their voices bounce around the car and prompt the other riders to huff and move seats, but they don’t notice. They talk about anything and everything that pops into their minds. 

It’s the lightest Rhett’s felt in years.

* * *

Now, instead of taking his earbuds out of his pocket as soon as he sits down, Rhett walks over and sits next to Link, ready to spend the next 45 minutes talking with him. He wishes they had more time, but Link doesn’t want to miss his stop again and have to take an expensive taxi cab home. 

They learn new things about each other every day, save the weekends. Rhett learns Link listens exclusively to rap and pop music and completely avoids musicals because he spends all his hours hearing them at work. Rhett tells Link about meeting his room mate, Stevie, at a bookstore and hitting it off despite the age difference. “Just as friends, though,” he clarifies quickly, and Link smiles fondly at Rhett’s blushing face.

* * *

“Where’d you grow up?” Link asks one day, maybe two weeks after their first meeting. Rhett looks up from his phone where he was just looking up the pros and cons of wood furniture versus plastic to settle an argument between them, “Small town in North Carolina,” he says, switching off his phone. 

Link’s face lights up in surprise, “Really?” he says, voice brimming with excitement. Rhett nods slowly, wondering where he’s going with this. “I grew up in North Carolina!”

Rhett sits up straighter, “What-where?”

“Lillington,” Rhett nearly falls out of his seat. 

“Dude-I grew up in Buies Creek!” he watches Link laugh loudly in shock and does the same.

“Are you serious?” Link says between laughs. Rhett’s not sure why they’re laughing anymore but he can’t help it.

“Yes! Why didn’t we see each other at school?” Rhett asks, trying to drudge up memories of a small kid with black hair and glasses, but ends up visualizing a grown Link’s head on a tiny child’s body instead.

“After a year at Buies Creek Elementary, my mom and I moved down a town and I went to Triton’s school district for the rest of my time there,” 

They stare at each other for a moment, both wondering what would’ve happened if they’d met. They were only a town away for over ten years, after all.

Eventually, Link gets up, “Well, this is my stop, see ya tomorrow,” he says, grasping Rhett’s shoulder.

“See ya, buddy,” he responds, putting his hand over Link’s one on his shoulder. Link smiles and walks out of the subway car, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Link is always the first one to leave, due to the fact that his apartment is ten minutes closer than Rhett’s. During the time he’s alone, Rhett opens his music app back up and listens to the songs Link recommended to him on the first day they met.

* * *

One day after Link leaves the car, Rhett notices that the section they sit in is completely bare, except for a few subway goers that he hadn’t seen before. He looks around and sees the woman who used to sit a few seats away from him. She's now on the other side of the car and in a far corner. They make brief eye contact and she gives Rhett a small, yet exasperated smile. He smiles back.

* * *

Rhett curses quietly as the metal on the thermos gets too hot for his hands. He covers his hands with his hoodie sleeves and carefully speed walks through the subway station. Mumbled apologies come from him whenever he cuts someone off in his hurry to the subway car before it departs.

Rhett had the bright idea of bringing some hot chocolate for him and Link to ward off the increasing coldness of the subway car as winter drew closer. Using an old thermos that no longer stayed cool on the outside, however, was an awful idea. A relieved sigh escapes his lips as soon as he steps into the subway car, setting the thermos down on the seat to his right as he occupies the one next to Link.

“Hey,” Rhett says as the doors of the car slide shut. 

Link looks up from his phone and grins, “Hey, bo,” 

Link had only started using that nickname a few days back, and Rhett never failed to smile every time he heard it. “I brought us some hot cocoa,” he says, covering his hands in his sleeves yet again to grab the thermos with both hands and hands it to Link, who was smart enough to wear gloves. Link’s face lights up as he twists open the container, “Wow, thanks man!” he smells it and sighs contently.

“Oh, geez,” Rhett laughs nervously, reaching into his hoodie pocket, “I must’ve dropped the cups on my way here,” 

His face turns red as Link starts to laugh, “That’s fine, you must’ve been in a hurry to get here then, huh?” Link asks, wide smile on his cold flushed face. Rhett nods sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Well,” Link says, leaning forward slightly. “I’m just glad you made it in time,” he pats Rhett’s thigh good-naturedly before taking a long sip from the thermos, moaning softly at the warmth and taste. 

Rhett’s eyes widen, “Yeah, me too,”

Link hands Rhett the thermos and sits back, “Cause I had an awful day at work and I was really looking forward to this,” he says with a frown and sits back up, correcting himself, “Ya know, talking with you, and the hot cocoa is good too,”

Rhett tilts his head, soft look in his eyes, and drinks some of the cocoa, not really caring where he put his lips on it, “What happened at work?” he asks after he swallows. Link looks as if he’s going to brush it off, but eventually shrugs, a humorless smile on his lips.

“It was just some actors with a big ego, belittling my cues,” he says simply, “Not a big deal, it happens. But I don’t know, this time it just cut me deep,” he looks at Rhett, grimacing, “I-I don’t know, it’s stupid,” he finishes, hands fidgeting in his lap.

Link looks back up when Rhett puts his hand on Link’s shoulder, setting aside the hot chocolate. He’s a little intimidated by the intense expression on Rhett’s face. “Link,” Rhett begins, squeezing Link’s shoulder gently. “It’s not stupid, they were jerks and you don’t deserve that, you were just doing your job,” he says, looking into Link’s eyes firmly.

“You’re too nice for your own good,” Link chuckles, “I’m way too uptight-and maybe too demanding on them, and they just let me have it today,” Rhett sees the frustration and hurt growing on Link’s face and pulls him into a hug despite the awkward angle. He feels Link go tense for a moment before he completely relaxes, sinking into Rhett’s hold, wrapping his arms around him.

They stay like that for a few moments, both of them hardly breathing, before Link pulls back, a hesitant smile on his face that matches Rhett’s. The hot chocolate is shared between the two of them for the rest of the ride, quiet words exchanged, and Link’s hand on Rhett’s arm.

* * *

Rhett slides the chain lock into place as he enters his apartment. A vibration from his phone causes him to pull it out of his coat pocket.

Link: Wont be riding tmrw

Rhett frowns as he looks at the text. He starts to reply but he’s interrupted by Stevie, “Who’re you texting?” she asks, leaning against the wall of the entrance hallway, staring at him. He fumbles with his phone, moving to switch it off but Stevie reaches forward and grabs it, reading the most recent text as well as the hundreds of previous ones. She raises an eyebrow and looks at Rhett with a smirk, “Who is this person who ‘won’t be riding tomorrow’?”

Rhett blushes quickly and starts waving his hands frantically as Stevie begins to laugh, “That’s-that’s not what it sounds like,” he says, “He’s a friend, I met him on the subway a few weeks ago.” Stevie bends over, laughing at her idea of a joke intensely, grabbing onto the wall. 

Rhett rolls his eyes and grabs her arms, “Stop!” he yells in mock anger, with a hint of a smile on his face, “It’s not even that good of a joke, stop laughing!”

Stevie relents and leads him to the couch, a few giggles escaping her mouth. She sits cross legged across from him. She pushes a strand of hair behind her ear and asks, “So who is he? And why haven’t you mentioned him to me?” 

Rhett clears his throat and leans back, sinking his body into the couch. “He’s works backstage on Broadway and he has black hair and glasses. Link came up to me at the end of last month and we started talking and I guess we’re pretty good friends now,” he swallows and looks back at Stevie, who’s looking at him like she looks at her especially hard projects. “He’s really cool, I swear,” he continues, “He likes the same movies as me and he’s really fun,” he trails off, scratching his arm awkwardly.

Stevie tilts her head, “You never talk to strangers, though,” 

Rhett nods, he has to agree with that. It was torture for him to talk to Stevie regularly when they first met, Rhett always chickening out of texting her and Stevie always insisting they hang out. It's not that Rhett’s shy, he just finds it hard to articulate himself to people he's not close to. “I don’t know,” he admits, “Just easy to talk to him,” Rhett waits for Stevie to say something and when she doesn’t he continues, “I mean, It’s like we already know each other and every day is just us being, us, without any distractions,” The silence in the room is deafening to Rhett and just quiet enough for Stevie to put two and two together, a grin growing on her face.

Finally, she speaks, “Do you like him?” she shifts so she can look at Rhett’s face more clearly.

Rhett’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion as he says with no hesitation, “Well yeah, of course!” Of course he liked Link. Why else would he talk to Link every day if he didn’t like him? Stevie’s right eyebrow raises as she stares at him as if he’s a child. “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks, a little frustrated at this point.

She chuckles quietly and responds, “No reason,” and walks to her room. Rhett watches her leave in utter bafflement and shakes his head, opting to forget about her weird behavior. He pulls his phone back out and starts typing.

Rhett: Aw :( why not?

He sets down his phone and grabs the TV remote, flipping through the channels until he reaches The Price Is Right and watches in rapt attention, occasionally muttering “Idiot,” at the screen when they get a price wrong by more than a hundred dollars even though he himself couldn’t really grasp what the price was. His eyes find themselves glancing at his phone in his lap every few seconds.

Rhett eventually falls asleep on the couch, bright lights flashing onto his sleeping form, dousing him in the glow of “The Price Is Right” reruns and infomercials before a sleepy Stevie stomps out of her room and turns off the TV.

His phone doesn’t vibrate once.

* * *

That man who sits two seats to Rhett’s right is staring again. Rhett shifts under the stranger’s stare and attempts to ignore his gaze. He feels a prickly sensation on his neck, pinpoints of two laser beams from the man’s eyeballs landing directly on Rhett. Eventually, Rhett can’t stand it anymore and turns to the man, “Can I help you?”

“Where’s your friend?” The seat squeaks under the stranger as he shifts to face Rhett completely.

Rhett swallows once, “I don’t know,” and as soon as he says it, Rhett feels his shoulders drop.

The man looks confused, “You two always ride together, what happened?” he asks as if he has the right to. 

“I don’t know,” he repeats hollowly. The man looks as if he's going so say something but turns away, pulling out his phone, and ending the conversation. Rhett watches him for a few moments before pulling out his own phone. The rest of the ride results in Rhett flipping through the pages of his homescreen, feeling utterly disconnected.

* * *

It’s Friday. Three days since Rhett last saw Link. He’s been sending texts to Link everyday, each asking where he’s been. Not one response. Rhett craves answers but restrains himself from running to the Booth Theater down three streets and right one from his office building.

Rhett walks into the subway car and his breath catches once he sees Link in his usual seat, fidgeting when he realizes Rhett has walked in.

Rhett walks quickly to his seat and sits, “Link, where have you been?” he asks, looking into Link’s wary blue eyes behind the large frames. Link smiles stiffly, “I took a few days to um,” he pauses, staring forward at the pole in front of their seats, “Think,” he swallows thickly and looks back at Rhett.

“What do you mean think? About what?” Rhett asks, blinking hard. 

Link smiles sincerely and shakes his head, “Nothing, don’t worry about it, bo.” he clears his throat and pushes a hand through his dark hair, regaining his sunny attitude, “So what’s your stance on lakes?” he asks. Rhett squints his eyes but decides to let this one go.

He answers positively, sitting back and settling into the cozy routine that the two of them have build for themselves. He feels a weight in his stomach turn when Link laughs loudly, the stiffness of Link’s posture from the earlier conversation leaving completely, head thrown back. Rhett stares at him with a goofy smile, laughing silently.

It’s moments like these that make Rhett forget about his stressful day at work, he still has to apologize for snapping at his team when they proposed an idea that he found ridiculous at the time. But, now looking at Link, and noticing how he gives his full attention to Rhett, makes Rhett completely forget about the tense meeting with his boss yesterday.

Only twenty minutes have passed and Link stands up with a nervous smile, “What?” Rhett asks, “This isn’t your stop,” he looks at Link, wondering if he’d moved? Or perhaps he’s going over to a friends house? Or significant others? That thought hasn’t passed Rhett’s mind ever but now that it has, he feels a twist in his gut and a sudden slight anger that he pushes away.

Link shakes his head, “No, but um do you want to take a walk or something?” he asks and holds his hand forward. Rhett glances from Link’s hand to Link’s face and grabs his hand.

“Sure,” Rhett responds, and Link leads him out of the subway, still grasping his hand. As Link brings Rhett along with a determined look on his face, Rhett takes the time to stare at how their hands fit together. It’s only until they leave the station that Link releases his hand and Rhett feels oddly disappointed at its absence.

“So, where are we going?” Rhett catches up with Link’s fast strides, surprised at how quickly he walks. Link glances at him and a soft smile forms on his face.

“We’re almost there, promise,” and he continues walking.

Rhett thinks to himself on the way there and wonders why they hadn’t gone out anywhere before today. Link taps people on the back as they push through a densely crowded sidewalk, them immediately moving to the side, away from the man on a mission. He leads Rhett through crisscrossing streets and large patches of grass. Rhett never fails to trip over his feet when Link decides to make a sharp turn at a corner or just in the middle of a street.

Rhett stares at Link’s face as they walk, a small smile on his face. It’s a refreshing sight after days without seeing the man. 

“Here we are!” Link says proudly gesturing forward.

Rhett snaps out of his thoughts and looks around at the grass beneath his feet to the expanse of water ahead of them, sparkling in the night, stars reflected in the small waves and ripples. “Are we at a lake?” he asks, with a amused smile growing wide on his face.

Link starts laughing and nods, “Yeah, I’m really glad you like them now,” he sits down at the edge of the grass, patting the space next to him. Rhett sits down and stares at Link in the light of New York city on his face. He notices Link looks different in this lighting than in the fluorescent lighting of the subway car. Better, Rhett concludes.

Link turns his head and looks at Rhett, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Just wanted to look at the city and stars with you, ya’know?” he says softly, scooting closer to Rhett, their shoulders touching.

“Yeah,” Rhett replies, looking up, feeling warmth spread from where their shoulders touch.

They stare at the stars for a few minutes until Link breaks the silence, “Looks beautiful, doesn’t it?” and looks at Rhett. Rhett looks back at Link, gazing into his eyes. Rhett’s mouth runs dry as they make eye contact, a fuzzy feeling in his chest. 

The man who sat on the other side of the subway car from Rhett, three seats to the right.

“Yeah, sure is,” he whispers, looking down at Link’s lips for a split second, but was still seen-the man who glanced at his watch ten times a minute. 

“Rhett,” Link whispers with questioning eyes-with the shiny and smooth black hair that seemed immaculate every time, side swept off of his forehead.

Time slows down, Rhett looks back up at Link and leans forward-the man with large glasses framing his crystal blue eyes-and closes the distance, pressing his lips to Link’s in a soft kiss. He feels the other man relax and move with him for a few seconds, lips sliding over each others, until they’re pulling back, a flush high on both of their cheeks. They breathe together, inches apart, and Rhett stares at Link with a shaky smile. Link stares back with an identical one, eyes sparkling.

The man who always caught Rhett staring.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I'm on Tumblr at notasponsor, feel free to message me! This did not have a beta, it was painstakingly edited by me. If you want to help out and beta, please contact me. 
> 
> Also please Comment and Kudos!


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